I thought I'd share an easy tail light lens restoration

[440]

Here is a tail light lens that I have restored. I picked the worst of the two to see how they would come out, and I'm pretty happy with it. They were dull, rough, covered in dirt and over spray. I'm going to blast and re-paint the tail light buckets although that leads me to a question, what color are they supposed to be, a primer gray color ?

After cleaning the lens it was still quite dull and covered in over spray. I used some polycarbonate cleaner to remove the over spray (paint and sticky gasket contact) which worked quite well. It gently removed the paint but didn't harm or fog the plastic.  

I then tried different polishes starting from the mildest to the most aggressive with a microfiber cloth only, as I figured a cotton terry towel would leave scratches behind on its own. I started with a cream polish which did pretty much nothing. I didn't have any plastic polish but willing to try something I used a bit of Meguiars Swirl X for paint. I figured it reasonably safe on plastic as they claim it's a non abrasive formula. Of course I tried it on an inconspicuous spot in case it clouded or scratched the acrylic lens. Well, it was an improvement but still not good enough.

I then ventured to try Meguiars Ultimate Compound which is really their most aggressive cutting compound outside of their professional range. The results were promising so I then proceeded to polish the entire lens which came out better than expected. It removed the fine scratches that were in the lens from years of improper washing. I only lightly rubbed the black paint with it just to remove the dead surface paint, and was careful not to rub the black off completely.  

I then re-painted the silver line and cream polished the black on the lens, and what you see is the end result.

[440]

More

[tan top]

looks good   

[tsmithae]

Looks good!  I used Meguiars Plastx and it seems to have done a very similar job.

As far as paint for the buckets, mine were bare metal except for the interior which was a semi-reflective grey color, I reshot mine with metallic silver on the inside.

http://1970chargerregistry.com/mboard/index.php?topic=601.0

[Brock Lee]

I use the Novus system. It makes the gauge lenses perfectly clear as well.

[440]

Most of the proper lens restoration products probably work better, I was just surprised at how well Meguiars ultimate compound for paint worked... Was basically rub on, rub off, couldn't get any easier really. All the fine scratches were gone and the lens was clear and more vibrant. I should grab some better photos outside where the light is better.

I've used plastx before but didn't get very good results with it, not aggressive enough I don't think...

I think Ultimate Compound works well because of its diminishing abrasives which break down as you rub in the compound. It starts as a heavy cutting compound which breaks down resulting in a finer polish, so the more you rub the better the finish.

[rt green]

an old street rodder trick is to paint the inside of the buckets flat white. makes the tail lights just glow

[nh_mopar_fan]

Hmmm, I have a botle of the ultimate around here somehwre. Think it'd work on clear headlight lenses on the wife's PT?